Every Thanksgiving and Christmas since 2006, my family and I have volunteered at El Caldito Soup Kitchen assisting as kitchen and dining room volunteers, providing photography services, organizing small gifts, and distributing blankets, socks, etc. to the less fortunate.

Unfortunately, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the facility’s dining room was closed. To keep clients and volunteers safe during some of the worst of the pandemic in New Mexico, clients had to take meals to go and could not sit inside to eat with others. Volunteers weren’t able to have much interaction with guests.